


Hard Day's Night

by Petra



Category: DCU - Comicverse, Green Arrow, Teen Titans (comic)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-01-02
Updated: 2007-01-02
Packaged: 2017-10-11 18:49:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/115755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Petra/pseuds/Petra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Justice League might think Roy was too young to run backup for Ollie on their world-saving missions, but the Teen Titans knew better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hard Day's Night

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [](http://askmehow.livejournal.com/profile)[**askmehow**](http://askmehow.livejournal.com/) for listening and [](http://brown-betty.livejournal.com/profile)[**brown_betty**](http://brown-betty.livejournal.com/) for beta reading.

It was always groovy working with Ollie, except when he forgot he had a ward or a sidekick and went haring off chasing this dame or that crook. Sometimes that left Roy holding the canapés and sneaking another glass of champagne from some waiter who felt bad for him. More often, it left him standing in an alleyway full of stuff nobody wanted.

Usually Ollie remembered he was there when it was the guys with doomsday weapons or the women who got into three banks in three nights. Times like that, it was good to have backup around, or something like that, so Green Arrow never got more than spitting distance from Speedy. A rope arrow at the right second was the difference between life and death every now and then. When Roy saved the day, Ollie gave him a high five and bought him diner pie before they went home.

That just made the lonely nights harder to take. If Roy managed to protect the innocent just a little more, or knock out one more henchman, maybe he would've been indispensable every single night. Maybe -- but it was a big maybe -- Ollie might even take him along on a Justice League thing, sometime. Those were the real heavy hitters, and Ollie was out there with a bow and a grin against guys who could knock out Superman.

Just the thought of Ollie facing down the kind of guy who could make Superman cry "uncle" made Roy smile, because he knew Ollie would. He knew he would, too, if he ever got half the chance.

More often, he watched Ollie disappear on another call to save the world. It got cold in Star City at night, and Roy always had bus fare tucked away, just in case. He'd end up taking off the uniform-like parts of his costume and getting the last bus, or, if worst came to worst, walking until he found some taxi driver wishing he'd just gone home after the last load of drunks.

That never happened with the Teen Titans. Maybe it was because they were so glad to see him, and glad to see each other -- all that "Shafty" and "Flasher" and "Robin-o" and "Wonder Chick" and even, when Garth was in a decent mood, "Gillhead." Maybe it was because they mostly worked during the day, and it was hard to miss a kid in bright red. Whatever it was, when he was with them, he always felt like part of a really important team on a super-important mission, righting wrongs, triumphing over evil, and getting to give Kid Flash a high-five at the end. Aqualad never ran off in the middle to get a piece of skirt, just to catch his breath. Sometimes Wonder Girl made funny noises over some stupid rockstar or other, but girls were like that. She was just as glad to see him as the rest, and sometimes she even gave him a hug.

*

The Justice League might think he was too young to run backup for Ollie on their world-saving missions, but the Teen Titans knew better. It helped that they were mostly younger than he was, but that didn't stop him from feeling outclassed.

It didn't make a lot of sense that they needed him. All he had that they didn't was ranged weapons, and he didn't even have superstrength to back them up. That was Wonder Doll's deal, and a fine figure she cut at it, too. But whatever they saw in him, they liked him.

Take the time with the murderous not-so-kosher-hot-dog maker from Long Island. Tevye Treyf, his name was, though they didn't know that 'til later because it was written on his apron in Hebrew -- meaning backward -- and while Roy could speak Diné bizaad all day and all night, he wasn't up on ancient lingo. Teyve had six rooms full of dogs and pigs and horses in a stuffy little tenement, plus five missing kids in his basement.

Robin took point -- he always took point -- and scoped the place out.

Kid Flash made a horrible face when he found out about the kids in the basement and then he was gone and then he was back, bending over out of breath, and saying he couldn't break the locks.

Wonder Girl pressed her lips together in a way that, for once, made her look more scary than pretty, and took off, swooshed around the building, and came back. "There is a pool on the roof." She took Aqualad's hand and gave him a lift up there so he could start messing with the pipes.

Roy twiddled his thumbs and went through his inventory again. It didn't seem like a good time for the boxing-glove arrow. Apart from that, he didn't have a lot to give them.

"If we let the animals out, it will be a really big mess," he says, trying to figure out how you got horses into an apartment building in the first place. Drag them up the stairs? Airlift them? Through the window, like pianos?

Robin thumped him on the back. "Let's go. Got your key-arrows?"

"Sure, but --"

Robin was already headed back up his grapple. The only way to not get left behind was to use a grapple arrow and follow him in through the third floor window.

Tevye Treyf was about to shoot a horse in the head when Roy let the pigs out with a key arrow and Robin used a Bat-lockpick on the dog pen. The pigs bowled him right over and he shot the window out.

That warned Wonder Girl, who came in a second later and grabbed him out of there, fat and greying and dangling like one of his very own sausages. "Oy vey!" he yelled, and he kept saying it until the cops came and got him.

The kids who were in the basement were all hungrier than hungry, so Roy took his bus money out of his pocket and bought everybody a round of burgers. The girls gave him this shining-eyed expression like they'd never seen anybody with a cheeseburger before, and both guys gave him a high-five. So did all the Titans.

They kept saying stuff like, "We couldn't have done it without you!" but he knew that wasn't true. He also knew more than enough not to actually say it, and to just smile and say, "'course you couldn't."

Getting back to Star City was easy, even without the bus money, because the Titans had such keen gear. The Arrowplane was nowhere near as cool as the Titans jet, and not just because he never got to fly it. They just dropped him off, and Wonder Girl hugged him goodbye, and he was back to being Speedy in an empty house. Ollie wasn't there.

It was three days before he remembered to call -- he was off with Green Lantern, somewhere, fighting something, there was a lot of interference, but he'd be back sometime.

When they got back together, he was in no shape to party with them for a long time, which just underlined how very much they didn't need him. And yet they were glad to see him again when he was better, which was way more than he could say for Ollie. Hugs all around, and boxing-glove arrows right on target, just like Robin needed. It made Donna smile. Nothing was prettier than that except the bad guys going down, especially when Roy got to help.


End file.
